One Week Into October and I Am Already Pinked Off!

On my Facebook page this morning was an announcement of the death of a Facebook friend from breast cancer.

After all is said and done, we really don’t have any evidence that we are closer to a cure. It’s discouraging to know that regardless of how much pink decorates the store shelves during Pinktober, people are still dying from the disease.

After all of the billions — yes, I am guessing billions — of dollars being raised and spent on research, breast cancer is still a family wrecker and a heart breaker. According to government statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over 200,000 people are diagnosed each year with breast cancer and over 40,000 will die from the disease. There are more people affected in this country from breast cancer than war, natural disasters, terrorism, or epidemics.

I love the pink marketing efforts against breast cancer. I am a supporter of any company that truly raises money and especially awareness about the disease. I buy pink, wear pink, and give pink gifts. I am a pink believer. My hope is that it is not all in vain. After years of pink marketing, we may have a few announcements about better treatment, or promising genome therapy, but I don’t sense anything that shows us we are closer to a cure.

There is no way to really know how much money is raised for breast cancer research and awareness from all the pink marketing during October. One can estimate that over the past five years, billions have been paid by consumers for the privilege of believing they are supporting breast cancer treatment and research. The reason for the difficulty in obtaining the real figures of money raised, spent, and used in the fight against the disease is that there are innumerable organizations taking advantage of the pink month of consumerism. Because many companies are nonprofit, there is no central reporting, or even a mandate that these companies need to report how much is raised and how much goes to the cause. I don’t blame the companies working to raise awareness or even the fact that they are benefiting and profiting from the breast cancer cause. But short of making this a federal case, what can we do?

I am pinked off because people are dying. I am losing friends, the world is losing brilliant women, and there is no one to blame. No one is in charge. There is no way to vent my frustration. I don’t know who or what the problem is, where the hold-up is, or why we don’t have a cure.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy-Ellen Kups, RN

Kathy-Ellen is a Registered Nurse living in Michigan. In 2003, Kathy-Ellen was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She was cancer-free from April 2004 until December of 2013 when it was discovered that...read more